School visit to Willingham Primary School

Date: 9th of March.
Author: Diana Ninsiima

Under the Society’s School Visits Scheme we; Shahzad Shafqat , Nandini Shivastva and I from Pakistan, India and Uganda respectively visited Willingham Primary School on the 9 th March 2009. This day marked the 60 th Anniversary of the Commonwealth. The school located in the village of Willingham, 30 minutes out of Cambridge caters for children between the ages of 4-11years. We arrived at 1.00pm in time for the general assembly and were met by and introduced to the students by the Headmistress Jo Brearley. Each of us gave a general presentation of who we were, which country we were from and what we courses we were studying. Following which, we proceeded to the 6 th Year class where we had a question and answer session with the 11 year olds. Questions were far ranging from queries about the types of puddings served in each country to the diversity of animals and cultures. Shahzan gave a brief history of how the Commonwealth came to be and one student noted that we all spoke English inspite of our different backgrounds, a key legacy of the system. The children were fascinated by the differences in our cultures and shared with us a few aspects of their cultures including what foods they ate and what they did for fun. We ended the afternoon with a brief tour of the Village and its 13 th Century Church.

This theme for this year’s anniversary of the Commonwealth is Serving the Next Generation, I believe the school visit scheme serves to highlight one of our roles as Commonwealth Scholars is to bridge the gap between all people(s) in the Commonwealth for the benefit of future generations.